Veteran gardeners are quick to recommend sticking to a good fertilizing routine. But the weekend gardener can become quite vexed by the rigors of remembering where the fertilizer is stashed and then finding the right measuring tool and mixing container.

It's easier to put the whole thing off until the next weekend.

And that's what inspired Massachusetts horticulture teacher Jim Ugone to invent a watering can that includes a receptacle and measuring tools for mixing fertilizer as you water.

"It's an ugly duckling," he says of his U Can Watering System. "It's not the most attractive thing in the world. But everything you need happens to be there."

The lightweight 2-gallon can's main aesthetic quality might be its translucent body - in green or blue - that allows light to shine through it, revealing the water line. It's topped by a wide, well-balanced handle with two rubber grips to ease watering, and has a large oval sprinkler head (or "rose" in horticultural lingo) that can be removed and stored underneath the spout.

But its main appeal is the built-in fertilizer container with a date dial to remind you of the next application date, along with a spoon and measuring cup. A couple of protruding nubs between the spout and handle can hold gardening gloves.

Ugone designed the U Can with the mass user of dried nonorganic fertilizer brands such as Miracle-Gro in mind. To help those using mostly organic liquid fertilizers or insecticides, he's added an optional liquid pump ($6.95) than can be inserted in the fertilizer container.

Another of Ugone's goals was to keep the production in the United States. The U Can is manufactured in Iowa of recycled milk jugs.